Lace-making

“ Many books giving patterns for lace-making were produced in the sixteenth century, but few of them afford any technical instruction in the art, and all assume that lace was already in demand throughout Europe. We need not therefore take these interesting little books into consideration in determining the antiquity of lace, although they are of great assistance on the question of design, as they constantly show by introducing the gammadion and other symbols, the survival of the Oriental tradition. ”

“ The Republics of Central and South America show indications of lace-making, consisting chiefly of darned netting and drawn-work, the general characteristic of the lace of these countries. The lace-bordered handkerchiefs of Brazil, and the productions of Venezuela, with the borders of the linen trousers of the guachos, and the Creva lace of the blacks of the Province of Minas Geraes, are the finest specimens of drawn-work. The lace of Chili is of the old lozenge pattern, and men also appear to be employed on the work. ”

“ The work is simple, consisting of the ground, with a thick thread to mark the pattern [635] (Fig. 109) . Instead of the sides of the mesh being plaited, as in Valenciennes, or partly plaited, partly twisted, as in Brussels and Mechlin, four of the sides are formed by twisting two threads round each other, and the remaining two sides by simple crossing of the threads over each other. In the eighteenth century more than two-thirds of the lace-making population of Europe made it under the name of mignonettes and blondes de fil. ”

“ There is a cluster of bobbins hanging down one side of the cushion which are wound with threads, and these threads she weaves around the pins in such a manner as to make lace.”
“I never saw anybody make lace that way. I have seen Aunt Maria knit it with a crochet-hook.”
“This is a different kind of lace altogether from the crocheted lace. They do not make it in the United States. The woman whom you see in the picture lives in Belgium in Europe. In that country, and in some parts of France and Germany, many of the poorer people earn a living at lace-making. ”

“ As early as the fifteenth century the countrywomen from the mountains of the Vélay would congregate together during the winter within the walls of the neighbouring cities, and there, forming themselves into companies, gain their subsistence by making coarse lace to ornament the albs of the priests, the rochets of the bishops, and the petticoats of ladies of quality. And very coarse and tasteless were these early products, to judge from the specimens which remain tacked on to faded altar-cloths, still to be met with in the province, a mixture of netting and darning without design. ”

“ As far as we can gather, the earliest endeavour at lace-making originated with the drawing of threads in linen fabrics, then dividing the existing threads into strands, and working over them, in various fanciful designs, either with a buttonhole stitch or simply a wrapping stitch. ”

“ Whilst the eighteenth century may perhaps be regarded as a period of questionable propriety in the employment of ornament hardly appropriate to the twisting, plaiting, and looping together of threads, it is nevertheless notable for tours de force in lace-making achieved without regard to cost or trouble. From this stage, the climax of which may be placed about 1760, the designing of lace patterns declined ”

“ The production of slender needles and small metal pins is an important incident in the history of lace-making by hand. Broadly speaking, the manufacture for a widespread consumption of such metal pins and needles does not date earlier than the fourteenth century. Without small implements of this character delicate lace-making is not possible. It is therefore fair to assume that although historic nations like the Egyptian, Assyrian, Hebrew, Greek, and Roman, made use of fringes and knotted cords upon{227} their hangings, cloaks, and tunics, lace was unknown to them. ”

“ In the year 1850 the lace-workers began to make guipures for France, and these now form their chief produce. The exportation is very great, and lace-making is the daily occupation, not only of the women, but of the ladies of the commune. [238] In 1862 Santa Margherita had 2,210 lace-workers: Rapallo, 1,494. The maestri, or overseers, receive all orders from the trade, and find hands to execute them. The silk and thread required for the lace is weighed out and given to the lace-makers, and the work when completed is re-weighed to see that it corresponds with that of the material given. ”

“ In Russia lace-making and embroidery go hand in hand, as in our early examples of embroidery, drawn-work, and cut-work combined. Lace-making was not a distinct industry; the peasants, especially in Eastern Russia, made it in their houses to decorate, in conjunction with embroidery, towels, table-linen, shirts, and even the household linen, for which purpose it was purchased direct from the peasants by the inhabitants of the towns. ”

“ In making it a perfect instructor and a reliable exponent of the favorite varieties of lace, we have spared neither time nor expense, and are most happy to offer to our patrons what a celebrated maker of Modern Lace has pronounced as "the finest book upon lace-making to be found on either continent." ”

“ When, in 1674, she purchased the estate from which she afterwards derived her title of Maintenon, anxious to render it productive, she enticed Flemish workers from the frontier to establish a lace manufacture upon her newly-acquired marquisate. How the fabric succeeded history does not relate, but the costly laces depicted in her portraits (Fig. 76) have not the appearance of home manufacture.
Fig. 75.
Louvois. 1691.— (From his statue by Girardon. M. de Versailles.)
Point lace-making became a favourite employment among ladies. We have many engravings of this reign ”

“ Another argument in favour of encouraging lace-making is, that it cannot be usurped by men: you may have men-milliners, men-mantuamakers, and even ladies' valets, but you cannot well fashion the clumsy and inflexible fingers of man to lace-making. ”

“ Ornamental needlework was done in Old Testament days, for Isaiah mentions those who “work in fine flax and weave networks.” But real lace-making—the interweaving of fine threads of flax, cotton, silk, of silver, gold or hair, to form a network—did not appear till the time of the Renaissance, when all the arts of Europe awoke to life. In a chapel at St. Peter’s, in Louvain, was an altar-piece painted in 1495 by Quentin [144] Matsys, which showed a girl making lace on a pillow like those still in use to this day. ”

“ The custom, already common in France, of ladies making their own lace, excites the ire of the writer of Britannia Languens, in his "Discourse upon Trade." [987] "The manufacture of linen," [988] he says, "was once the huswifery of English ladies, gentlewomen, and other women;" now "the huswifery women of England employ themselves in making an ill sort of lace, which serves no national or natural necessity."
The days of Puritan simplicity were at an end.
"Instead of homespun coifs were seen
Good pinners edged with Colberteen." [989]
The laced cravat succeeded the falling collar. ”

“ They say it was a woman, Barbara Uttmann, who invented pillow lace in the 16th century. Women have ever been patrons of lace-making. Victoria has kept the Honiton laces in fashion, and it was the Duchess of Argyle who introduced lace-making in Scotland. The Countess of Erne and Lady Denny and Lady Bingham began it in Ireland, and Lady De Vere gave her own Brussels point for patterns when the first Irish point was made at Curragh. It was Elizabeth of Denmark who introduced lace-making in that country, and the Archduchess Sophia who started lace schools in Bohemia. ”

“ The Weekly Magazine of 1776 strongly recommends the art of lace-making as one calculated to flourish in Scotland, young girls beginning to learn at eight years of age, adding: "The directors of the hospital of Glasgow have already sent twenty-three girls to be taught by Madame Puteau, [1214] a native of Lisle, now residing at Renfrew; you will find the lace of Renfrew cheaper, as good and as neat as those imported from Brussels, Lisle, and Antwerp." David Loch also mentions the success of the young Glasgow lace-makers, who made lace, he says, from 10d. ”

“ It was a durable and handsome lace (Fig. 145) .
Fig. 143.
Wire Ground.— (Northampton.)
Towards the year 1830, insertions found their way to the public taste (Fig. 146) .
Till the middle of the nineteenth century, in lace-making districts, almost the only schools were the lace schools—and there were several in most villages—where lace-making was the principal thing taught and a little reading added. I am indebted to Mrs. Roberts, formerly of Spratton, near Northampton, for the following description, which she kindly allows me to reprint.
Fig. 144.
Valenciennes.— (Northampton.)
{389}
Fig. ”

“ The writer saw at Chantilly an aged lace-maker employed in making a lace ground of hair on the pillow, used, she was informed, by wig-makers to give the parting of the hair; but the fabric must be identical with the point tresse sent by the mother of Darnley to the Queen of Scots. Point tresse, when made out of the hair of aged people, is occasionally to be met with on the Continent, where, from its rarity, it fetches a high price. ”

“ The specimens from Rättwik are narrow "seaming" laces of the lozenge pattern.
There is also a sort of plaiting used as a fringe, in the style of the Genoese macramè, from the ends of a small {282}sheet which the peasants spread over their pillows. No improvement takes place in the designs. The Dalecarlian women do not make a trade of lace-making, they merely work to supply their own wants. ”

“ Only a few years have elapsed since this plucky little woman made a single piece of lace edging from common braid as an experiment, and sold it for a trifling sum. Love for the work and perseverance have enabled her to overcome obstacles that would have discouraged a woman of ordinary energy, and she has gradually improved upon her earlier methods until modern lace occupies a front rank among the numerous dainty forms of needle-work of the day. ”

“ The art of making lace in one form or another has existed from the earliest ages. There are Scriptural references to various web-like fabrics, which were of rude construction, no doubt, but whose general characteristics were identical with those productions of modern skill which have for centuries been known as lace. Homer and other ancient writers constantly mention net-works of fancifully embroidered materials; gold thread-work was known to the Romans ”

“ Alençon, an old lace-making centre, was chosen as the seat of the new manufacture. [454] Favier-Duboulay writes to Colbert that, before the introduction of the new points de France, lace-making was to the peasants "une manne, et une vraie bénédiction du ciel, qui s'est espandue sur tout ce pays." The art had spread far and wide through the district about Alençon; children of seven years of age and aged men earned their daily bread by it, and the shepherdesses worked at their lace while herding their flocks.
{156}
Fig. ”

“ The astonishing perfection in art handicrafts of all descriptions which we find in China many hundreds of years before the Christian era shows no vestiges of a manufacture of lace; but, in the tombs of ancient Egypt, garments have been discovered with the edges frayed and twisted into what we may call a primitive lace, and in some of the Coptic embroideries threads have been drawn out at intervals and replaced with those of coloured wools, making an uncouth but{22} striking design. ”

“ In a pamphlet published 1702, entitled, An Accompt carried between England and Scotland, alluding to the encouragement of the yarn trade, the author says: "This great improvement can be attested by the industry of many young gentlewomen that have little or no portion, by spinning one pound of fine lint, and then breaking it into fine flax and whitening it. One gentlewoman told me herself that, by making an ounce or two of it into fine bone lace, it was worth, or she got, twenty pounds Scots for that part of it ”

“ There are no large manufactories, and the trade is in the hands of women and children, who make it on their own account, and as they please. [293] Swinburne, who visited Spain in 1775, writes: "The women of the hamlets were busy with their bobbins making black lace, some of which, of the coarser kind, is spun out of the leaf of the aloe. It is curious, but of little use, for it grows mucilaginous with washing." He adds: "At Barcelona there is a great trade in thread lace." ”

“ There is every reason to suppose, that during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and two following centuries, the making of lace occupied the same important position in the daily employments of the nuns, as the arts of copying illuminating manuscripts, amongst the monks and friars. ”

“ The number of lace-makers in the town of Argentan and its environs at this period amounted to nearly 1,200. In a list of 111 who worked for the Maison Guyard appear the {206}names of many of the good bourgeois families of the county of Alençon, and even some of noble birth, leading one to infer that making point lace was an occupation not disdained by ladies of poor but noble houses. ”

“ They are all sold separate, and you will see a very pretty sprig, for which the worker only gets twelve sous. The masters who have all these people employed give them the thread to make them; this they do according to a pattern, and give them out to be grounded; after this they give them to a third hand, who 'hearts' all the flowers with the open work. That is what makes this lace so much dearer than the Mechlin, which is wrought all at once. ”